


When We Have Come This Long, Long Way

by VarjoRuusu



Series: For Who Are We to Say [2]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: F/M, Nine months later a wedding, No Warnings, Oneshot, Read part one for context, Several other people are mentioned but not enough to get their own tag, fluffy as all hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 19:23:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6484405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VarjoRuusu/pseuds/VarjoRuusu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I, Raymond Reddington, do take you, Elizabeth Scott, to be my wife."</p><p>Nine months have passed since the death of Tom Keen and Liz is ready for the next part of her life to begin on this one special day. </p><p>Can be read alone, however 'For Who Are We to Say' gives it context. Part 2/4</p>
            </blockquote>





	When We Have Come This Long, Long Way

“Are you nervous dearie?”

Liz shook her head with a smile, glancing over her shoulder at Mr Kaplan.

She stood in front of a full length mirror, admiring the simple, yet elegant dress she was wearing. It was pale blue, complimenting her eyes perfectly. She wore little make-up and her hair was pinned on top of her head in loose curls, woven with baby's breath and a veil that matched her dress. She smiled, watching in the mirror as Corde crawled along the floor, playing with this and that, sometimes a toy, sometimes a shoe. Liz could hardly hold in her laugh as the nine month old came across one of Red's hats and stuffed it on her own head. The hat hung over her eyes and rotated back and forth as Corde looked around curiously, not knowing why she suddenly couldn't see. She dumped the hat off and looked at it with suspicion, never noticing her mother holding her sides as she laughed silently, or Mr Kaplan taking a picture to text to Red and Dembe, who waited on the other side of the mansion.

“That has to be the cutest thing she's done yet,” Liz breathed, her heart ready to burst with love.

“She is quite the troublemaker,” Mr Kaplan observed in her dry tone. “She gets that from her father.”

“Which one?” Liz said, a little bitterly. She did her best to forget that Red wasn't Corde's biological father but it still crept into her conscious when someone made a comment like that.

Mr Kaplan glanced back down at the child, who was once more cramming her head into Red's enormous fedora and actually snorted with laughter. “Dearie, you'll never know for sure quite what of her mischief comes from her biological father, or her adoptive father, but that, that comes right from Mr Reddington.”

Liz giggled and stooped down to pick up her daughter, adjusting the hat to it sat on her head but didn't fall over her eyes. Corde clapped.

“Well, are you ready?” Mr Kaplan asked and Liz nodded, handing over the little girl and picking up her bouquet of red roses, taking a deep breath.

The house was small, by Red's standards, though still a mansion in Liz's eyes, located in a beautiful garden where every flower imaginable bloomed, situated at the foothills of an Italian mountain, vineyards and fields rolling in every direction, the sea a little more then ten minutes walk away. How he had found such a beautiful place Liz would never know, but the first time she saw it she knew that's where she wanted to get married and when she told him, he started arranging it immediately. Now, three months after that, their small group of friends were gathered in the ballroom which had been covered ceiling to floor in fresh flowers and smelled of nothing but spring and warmth.

As Liz followed Mr Kaplan she turned the corner into the doorway and saw Red standing at the end of the aisle, as impeccably dressed as ever in her favorite coal black suit and blood red tie. To one side Cooper, Samar, Aram and Donald stood, all smiling and dressed smart, but casually. For all the decorations Liz had insisted on a relaxed dress code for the day. She wasn't going through the white dress for a third time.

To Red's side of the room there were several of his most trusted associates. She chuckled when she noticed Ezra the hotel tail wink at her and she shook her head as her eyes slid over Glen Carter, the annoying little man who tracked people for Red, Marvin Gerard, the lawyer, and the man with the white hair and ponytail who's name she still didn't know. And of course, Dembe, standing behind Red so he could perform the ceremony.

Smiling, Liz walked down the aisle created by potted rose bushes of every color, to the sound of the music box Red had given her. When she reached him, just as the music trailed off, they reached for each others hands and she smiled even wider.

“Hi,” she whispered.

“You take my breath away, Lizzy,” Red responded quietly, his eyes warm and his smile wide.

“Shall we begin?” Dembe asked and they turned to him with a nod, forcing themselves to break eye contact.

“Today we stand together to see the marriage of Elizabeth and Raymond,” Dembe began. “Though their road has been hard, and not always paved with smooth stones, they have found their way here through the hardships, the doubt, the danger. They have found their way to each other and now they wish to be joined together and never parted. Will you speak your vows?”

“I, Raymond Reddington, do take you, Elizabeth Scott, to be my wife. I promise to protect you, and your daughter, with every breath and fiber of my being, for the rest of my life. I will never lead you into danger, I will never lead you astray. I will love you, cherish you, worship you, until the day I die.” Red's eyes were misty as he slid a simple silver band on her left ring finger and Liz was smiling and blushing in equal measure.

“I, Elizabeth Scott, do take you, Raymond Reddington, to be my husband,” Liz said, her throat choking up as she smiled, trying to keep the tears back until she finished speaking. “I will trust you with my life and never doubt you, I will protect you to the best of my ability, and I will love you with all my heart until my dying day. I will stand by your side through any obstacle, at any impasse. I will walk through fire for you, I will follow you to the ends of the earth if you run away from me.” Now she was crying openly and Red was chuckling. “You will never get rid of me, Raymond Reddington,” she said, sliding the matching silver band onto his finger.

“You may kiss,” a faraway voice told them and they moved as one, their mouthes locking as Red's arms wrapped around her tightly and pulled her close, her arms wrapping around his neck, the roses crushed against the side of his head, tickling his ear.

The few that were gathered cheered loudly and they finally broke apart, smiling softly at each other.

“I still don't know what I did to deserve you,” Red whispered and Liz smiled.

“You picked me up, every time I fell, you stayed by me even when I tried to push you away. You knew where my heart belonged long before I did and you never gave up on me. You never gave up, Red. You never gave up.” She was crying hard by now, tears mixed with happy laughter and Red hugged her close, his own tears vanishing into her hair.

“By my right I now declare you to be husband and wife,” Dembe said with a smile. “Na iwe leo furaha ya harusi.”

The small assembly cheered again and Liz laughed loudly when Red bent down and scooped her up, carrying her outside into the garden where they would have a short reception, before they sailed into the Mediterranean for their honeymoon.

“This feels like a dream,” Liz said later, watching the sunset from the safely of Red's arms on the deck of what she suspected was one of many yachts.

“I hope it's not a dream,” Red chuckled, tightening his arms around her.

“I'm worried about Corde,” Liz mumbled.

“Don't worry, sweetheart, Dembe will take good care of her. You know how much she loves him, she won't even miss you,” Red assured her. Liz nodded, yawning.

“Did you ever...find out what happened at the church? Who was still after me?”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Red said slowly. “My sources tell me they weren't after you, they were after your erstwhile husband.”

“Tom?” Liz asked, raising her head. “What did they want with...they wanted to kill him, didn't they?”

“They succeeded,” Red said quietly, the first time it had been confirmed to Liz that Tom was dead. She always suspected, but she had never asked and he had never offered.

“So we're safe?” she asked after a while.

“Incredibly,” Red smiled. “Everyone knows you and your child are under my protection, and no one will come near you. You are a formidable force, Elizabeth Reddington, and they're almost as scared of you as they are of me.”

“Say it again,” Liz giggled, hearing his name with hers sending shivers down her spine.”

“Elizabeth Reddington. My beautiful wife,” Red whispered as he drew her closer and guided her lips to his with gentle fingertips on his chin.

“I love you, Mr Reddington,” she mumbled against his lips.

“And I love you, Mrs Reddington,” he replied, chuckling when she collapsed in a fit of giggled and he picked her up, her laughter echoing over the crystal blue of the Mediterranean as he carried her below to their lavish stateroom, promising the beginning of a long and beautiful life for both of them.

**Author's Note:**

> What Dembe says in in Swahili, though I know he's from Sierra Leon. I wanted something African and I couldn't find any wedding blessings not in English since Sierra Leon's official language is English. I figured, it's Dembe, he speaks many many languages. It's likely he speaks Swahili. I have a head canon that he and Red spend several months hiding out somewhere in Africa in their early days, and that's how he learned or something. 
> 
> I also head canon'd that Dembe got ordained to perform the ceremony for his daughter and the father of her baby, then something happened to said father of baby which explains why he's not in the show. *shrug* 
> 
> Translation: Let today be the happiest wedding moment.  
> Website: http://www.glcom.com/hassan/kanga.html
> 
> Doing a quick search I found the music box identified as the 'Anniversary Waltz' which. Wow. It fits.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c0B0q6oK2E


End file.
